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Come on, sing it, church. Hey, clam it out. In hell still know That the grave is still empty The stone is still raw You're still You're still Sitting on the Red To the name of Our Lord Jesus Jesus You You're the name Above all Names I love when we sing that bridge because that really is the declaration of truth of the reality of Jesus being the name above all names. I like to read it. Would you put it back up there for us? The cross still stands. The blood still flows. The work is finished and hell still knows. That means if you're a believer here today, right? Are you watching online? Jesus has paid the debt. It is finished.
We're not trying to get it. We've got it, right? Because he's paid a debt we could never ever, ever, ever pay and now it's just out of grateful hearts of sons and daughters that we proclaim that he is the name above every other name. Could we just lift our hands to him today and just out of your mouth just lift your voice up and just begin to declare who he is. Just begin to worship him. Father, we bless you. Jesus, we honor you today. You are the name above every other name. I thank you for it. I thank you for it. Can I say something to you? I think it's valuable as a believer. I understand that we're wired differently. We have different personalities and all that stuff and yet there is something about speaking praise out of our mouth. There's something about getting it from just thinking it.
Thinking it is good, okay? But there's another level of praise when it actually makes it from our brain to our mouths and out of it, right? I'm not saying you've got to scream it and dance it, but there's something about proclaiming it out. That's not Jonathan's opinion. That's not charismatic worship. That's a command in scripture to out of our mouth praise the Lord. In fact, if we don't do it, the Bible said the rocks are going to cry out, right? So it's not about personality type. You say, Jonathan, I'm not, I've never really done that. I'm not super comfortable in it. That's okay. Start where you are. Let's listen to the Bible, okay? Listen and just begin. It might start as a whisper, but there is something about getting it from your brain out of your mouth.
I'm helping somebody today, all right? I don't stop here on this, but I'm helping somebody. I want to encourage you, not just when the saints are gathered, even though that's beautiful, but even in your own house. There's times when even hearing myself, I'll be honest with you, a very practical sense, even hearing myself say things at times helps strengthen me as it gets from my brain of thinking it out of my mouth, right? Amen. I'm not talking about blabbing and have it, okay? I'm not, that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about declaring what the Word of God says and declaring who God is.
There is a power in that that really builds your spirit as you do that. So maybe that's not practice for you. That's not a common practice for you. I want to encourage you today to do that, both when the saints are gathered and when you're by yourself in your home. I believe it's a blessing to you, right? Well, Lord, we love you today. We bless you. You are worthy worthy worthy. We honor you. Team, thank you for leading us this morning.
I love it. I love it.
Well, give somebody a high five as you're seated and the kids will release the elementary. You can follow Kyle back there. He's waving. Parents, if you've not checked in your kids and please do that, follow them out. You can slip back in here. I'm going to switch over here, Tyler. Good to have you this morning. Are we on here? There we go.
I hope that you are doing well. If I've not had an opportunity to meet you, my name is Jonathan Cook, part of the pastoral team, preaching team at Destiny Life. We're glad that you're gathered at the 11 o'clock service here in Claremore. Whether you're in the building or watching online, it's great to have you with us. We're kind of scattered around here. Glenn and Amy are taking a well-deserved vacation. We've been here for a couple of weeks. We bless them. They'll be traveling a little bit this week.
I think they're going to the Bible Museum over in Washington, D.C. If you've never been to the Bible Museum, I highly recommend it. It's amazing. Anybody been to the Bible Museum? Wave at me if you've been there.
Not very many. You need to make a pass. Anyway, they're there. Jerry Vaughn. Many of you know Jerry and Teresa.
He'll be giving us a little blurb at the end of the service via video. He's out in New Mexico, ministering to the church out there. We have a mission team in Panama, Central America. A group from here and a group from Move Church. Many of you guys know them in Birmingham are together. They're in the same place that our team in June went. They're doing slightly different work there, but they're there this week. They come back on Friday. As you remember them, think of them this week. Lift them up in prayer, would you?
Just continue to agree over them. As you remember Glenn and Amy, just pray that the Lord would refresh them, guard them, protect them and that they would come back, rejuvenated and refreshed.
We're glad that you're here today. I hope that you're rejuvenated and refreshed. I hope that your home has air conditioner. Glory to God. Summer is on us. I think I like all the seasons. You've got some folks that are in the winter time asking for the summer and then everybody that hates the summer is like now you got what you want. It's 100 degrees and then you got people that love the winter and they're freezing and people get mad at them. I like all of it. I just don't like the extremes. I like cool. I don't like frigid. I don't mind warm. I don't like walking on the surface of the sun. I don't like the extremes, which we definitely have here in Oklahoma. We are going to make our way through it. Glory to God. Well, 2 Corinthians chapter 10 is where we are as we preach our way through 2 Corinthians. Glenn did a great job last week of introducing really just a two message series that we're calling spiritual, not carnal. We're talking about authority, specifically spiritual authority, but really authority in general and working our way through 2 Corinthians chapter 10.
If I had to title the message today, I would title it this, The Freedom of Limit. The Freedom of Limit because I think there is a freedom that comes to our life when we understand our limits. I want to talk a little bit today about authority and the fact that it really is measured. There is a definitiveness to it. It's given to us by God. I want to talk through that a little bit. Glenn talked last week about spiritual authority, which is a greatly misunderstood thing in the church. Unfortunately, we've seen authority abused, not just spiritual authority, but authority itself abused. Because of that, sometimes it causes us to make judgments or vows or resist proper and healthy authority. Glenn talked last week about how really authority is spiritual. It isn't carnal. True spiritual authority doesn't operate through intimidation, manipulation, personality, control. When we encounter that, that's not true godly, healthy authority. Unfortunately, we've seen some of that. Paul starts out chapter 10 with an interesting idea. He's talking about authority and spiritual authority. He starts that off by talking about meekness and the gentleness of Christ and how he's approaching them. Then we talk through some of those scriptures that we sometimes use in the area of spiritual warfare, of our weapons of warfare are not carnal. They're mighty through God and the pulling down of strongholds. We get pumped up about that. We use that passage of scripture about a personal spiritual warfare. I believe in spiritual warfare and I believe in prayer and all of those things, but the context of that verse is not talking about your private spiritual warfare. It's talking about a corporateness there. He identifies what those things are. They're ideas. They're arguments that present themselves against the knowledge. Pull those down. In the ancient world, oftentimes strongholds were at the top of the city. The citizens of the city would flee there if they were to come under attack. Thus Paul using that terminology. We're going to pull those strongholds down. They're fortifications in that. Also, he hit on this, which I think is really important. For us, particularly as Americans, those of us raised in the United States, we can become, I love by the way, I'm grateful to God. We just celebrated July 4th. I'm grateful to God to live in a nation of freedom. I'm grateful to God to live in a nation of liberty. I'm grateful to God to live in a nation that cares for the individual expression of individual liberty. Our conscience before God is the most sacred thing that we have. I'm grateful for all of that, but have you know, every time there's a good strength there, there can be a weakness.
Beside it, and I think the difficulty for us sometimes as Americans is the opposite of that strength is that we can get out of just being grateful for being individuals and having individual liberty and we can get into individualism. We have a tendency to really focus in on myself and my rights and don't recognize sometimes what can happen even in a body of believers of the corporateness of that. And Glenn hit on the fact that when you're being obedient to God, you're not going to be able to do that. It's not just about your obedience to God even though it's great that we're obedient in our personal life with God, but there's an overflow out of your obedience that brings strength to a body of believers. And the same is true in disobedience. You might be personally disobedient to God and there can be a permeation of that disobedience into a body of believers. So it's beyond just my individual obedience or disobedience. There's a corporateness about that and you can say it this way, that your carnality doesn't stay isolated, right? It can permeate into other areas. I won't take time to re-preach that.
If you weren't here last week, go back and listen to Glenn's message. It was outstanding. And so Paul, as he kind of gets into the second half of this chapter, his thought, he doesn't start with just the character, if you will, of spiritual authority. He starts talking about what he calls a measure of spiritual authority, right? The spiritual authority is not only a spiritual by nature, but it's measured in its assignment. In other words, he's saying each one of us has a measure of spiritual authority. He's talking about in the context of himself and he's saying that comes from God and it's measured, it's definitive, it has boundaries, it has a sphere, it has stewardship. In other words, I'm responsible to care for that.
It's assigned by God. That's a big one.
In fact, I want to pause there and make sure, if you don't hear anything else, I want you to hear this today, that any measure of authority that someone has, any measure of spiritual authority that someone has, does not come from you, it comes from God. That's a big deal, right? Because we can assume things, but the reality is God is the one that supplies. And in other words, spiritual authority has a measure, it's limited by God, and no one, let me say it, no one has authority outside of God himself, right? None. So when we talk about, I like to define terms. When I'm talking about spiritual authority, what am I saying? Here's what I'm saying. Spiritual authority is not title, position, personality. Spiritual authority is influence that people recognize because they see the grace of God in your life, they see the character of Christ in your life, they see the work of the Spirit in your life. In other words, people begin to observe that in you, and out of that your spiritual authority grows. Now, if you're sitting here thinking, okay, well, I'm going to start working behind the scenes, and I'm going to just force myself to have the character of Christ because I want my spiritual authority to grow within this body. You're on the wrong track. You're pointing in the wrong direction. Right? How does my spiritual authority grow? It's very simple. Serve people and allow God to work in your life, and let the fruit of that permeate. Right? We think positionally at times, I'm going to talk more about this, but we think positionally, I've got to come in and grab hold of something, and if somebody just gives me a title, I do something.
That's the opposite of what true spiritual authority is. And so, let me just kind of tell you what I'm going to tell you before I tell you, okay? Here's Paul's summary of what he says here in the second half of chapter 10. He says, carnal people measure themselves by comparison. We have a real comparison issue. In fact, I think comparison is really a thief of joy. It really is. Secondly, he says that spiritual authority has God-given limits. He says that his authority among them was legitimate because he had labored amongst them, the Corinthians. He said, my desire is really not for self-promotion. My desire is for gospel expansion. So he's not in it for a himself. True spiritual authority is not in it for themselves. It's a big deal, right? He says, if you're going to boast in something, boast in the Lord. That's the only safe boasting. In fact, if you're bragging about something, it's almost like the Holy Spirit is obligated to show you, you just really aren't that good. And lastly, he says, you know, when you think about commendation, most of the commendation that you're giving yourself, like if I'm telling you how great I am, guess what? That's really not worth the whole lot. The only commendation really worth anything is God's commendation.
Now, remember, he's talking about this in the context of other apostles that had come to the Corinthians, telling the Corinthians how great they are and how terrible Paul is. Paul's not very impressive. He doesn't look very impressive. I was telling him, Owasso, last week I was preaching this message in Owasso or the message from the first 11 verses there. I'm encouraged by Paul because Paul was preaching one time at night. He preached so long, my man fell asleep in the message and fell out the window and died. I don't think I've ever preached to somebody, preached somebody to death. I'm encouraged. Now, I got to tell you the other side of that, though. Paul goes down, prays for him, raises him from the dead. They go back up. He's right on preaching. Now, I don't know about y'all, but if I preached and somebody died, I'd be like, oh, let's call it a night, okay? We probably had enough. Paul said, nope, I'm not done yet. Let's go. Let's keep on going, right? I'm encouraged by him, right?
So, he moves from kind of these, he's talking about these spiritual weapons last week into a spiritual measure. Here's kind of the main thought for today, that spiritual authority, as I said, is really received from God. It's really exercised within a given measure or sphere. I'm going to explain that. It's entrusted to us, and here's the purpose of it. Here's the true purpose of spiritual authority. It's to build others up. It's to serve people. It's to care for them. It's to build them up.
It's not for comparison. It's not for control. It's not for self-commendation. In other words, God did not give me a measure of spiritual authority so that everybody can see how great I am, and I can just kind of, you know, throw my weight around, so to speak. He gave me a measure of spiritual authority to serve His body, to care for people, and as we do that, we see the kingdom of God grow. That's really important to do. So here's another way to say that. When we know our measure, that comparison really dies in our life. We stop comparing ourselves to other people. Humility really grows in our life because we recognize it's not about me anyway.
God gave it to me. I didn't do anything to deserve it. I can't gain more of it. God gave it to me anyway. So humility grows, and then Christ really gets the glory, right? Christ is really glorified. When you think about God's authority, you know, really His structure, if you will, and His authority, it really ensures order, if you will, and safety in His kingdom. And just in a very practical sense, you know, I would think about it this way, like a traffic light, right? When you see a traffic light, and you see a red light, and you stop, you are operating in obedience, to the law of the land. And as others do that, what happens?
Order is produced, right? When you start running the red lights, or other people start running the red lights, what happens? Chaos is produced because they are operating outside of the bounds of that particular thing. If you've ever been to a developing world country, you know, most of the time red lights are suggestions. And if you've driven in that environment, you recognize the chaotic environment that that produces. Why does it produce? Because there's no order. So when God brings authority to something, and you're operating in a measure of authority, there is an order to that, and when you step outside of that order, you begin to see chaos or bad fruit. It would be like survey lines. You know, maybe you've had your property surveyed, and, you know, you recognize that those lines are important.
When we get outside of those bounds, you know, you might have seen situations where somebody built a fence six inches, you know, or six feet on their neighbor's property, and they might have to tear that fence down. Why do they have to do that? Because they're outside of the bounds of what the parameters have been of that particular measurement. So when we're talking about spiritual authority and measure, Paul is saying God has given, in fact, he says in Ephesians, he's given to each one of us a metron, or a measurement of, of grace. What does that mean? That God has given unto each one of us a measurement of grace. Now, we can grow in that grace, but I don't think the grace itself grows. Here's a biblical example of that. The land in the Old Testament, for Old Testament Israel, the borders of that land were already decided. And God said, here's the borders, but I'm not going to give it to you all at once because it would overwhelm you.
Number one, it would overwhelm you. Number two, you've got a generation that's been in the wilderness and we need to teach them how to fight. So they're going to gradually take this land, right, until they get to the parameters that it is. So all of us have a measure of grace and authority in our life that God has set out, and I believe that's definitive. That's Jonathan's opinion, but I believe biblically I could prove that. It's definitive. Now, as I continue to operate in that authority, I grow in the grace that God has already given me. You see? Are you seeing that? So, that's kind of where we're going.
So let's read this passage here. I'm going to begin in verse 12. 2 Corinthians chapter 10. It'll be on the screen here. I love Paul. I'm going to read out of the NLT. I like the way the NLT says this. Look how he says here. Oh, don't worry. We wouldn't dare say that we are as wonderful as these men who tell you how important they are. Paul the apostle is a bit sassy at times. He says, but they are only compared themselves. Remember, we're talking about these faulty apostles that had come into Corinth and basically commended themselves for how great they were and why you guys should support us and why you should think we're awesome. He says they're only comparing themselves with each other, using themselves as the standard of measurement. How ignorant! Paul doesn't mix words. I like that. Verse 13. We won't boast about the things done outside of our area of authority or outside of our measure. We will boast only about what has happened within the boundaries of the work.
Now, look at this key phrase right here. God has given us. In other words, God gave it to us. We're not trying to take it. We're not trying to commend ourselves. God gave it to us, which includes our working with you. Verse 14. We're not reaching beyond these boundaries or beyond our measure when we claim authority over you as if we had never visited you. For we were the first to travel all the way to Corinth with the good news of Christ. Nor did we boast and claim credit for the work someone else has done.
Instead, we hope that your faith will grow so that the boundaries of our work among you will be extended. Then we'll be able to go and preach the good news in other places far beyond you where no one else is working. Then there will be no question of our boasting about work done in someone else's territory. As the scriptures say, if you want to boast, boast only about the Lord. When people commend themselves, it doesn't count for much. The important thing is that the Lord is for the Lord to commend them. I want to talk briefly today about three areas of authority. The standard of authority, the structure of authority, and the stewardship of authority. As I say many times, when all of your points start with the same letter, it is far more anointed. Just let y'all know that.
That's a joke. The standard of authority, comparison versus commendation. Before we ever really are able to experience true freedom in the God-given limits that He's given us, I think we've got to really talk about the traps and one trap in particular that keeps us from that. That trap that I'm talking about is sometimes we're so busy at looking at everybody else's measure and everybody else's thing and everybody else's property that we get so distracted we miss what God has given us. So we start comparing ourselves to other people. We start commending ourselves because instead of just looking to God and saying, Lord, thank you for what you've entrusted to my care, we start comparing ourselves to what He may have given to someone else. And that's always a trap. And as I said, comparison is a thief of joy. And I was thinking about when I was 16 years old, I worked at Chick-fil-A. Tell me somebody.
That holy chicken, Chick-fil-A. And at that time I don't even think there was freestanding Chick-fil-A's. I think they only existed in the mall. And so the mall was probably 20 minutes from my house and so I'm working during the Christmas season and I'm going home from work and I'm 16. I don't have a car yet so I'm driving my dad's car. And my dad at that time had a 1982 Boss Mustang jet black, windows tinted black you could hardly see out of it. He had changed out the carburetors. I mean, this car would fly. I had zero business driving this car as a 16-year-old boy especially. He should have never let me behind the wheel of this car.
My dad loves to go fast. He still loves to go fast. I'll tell him at times, Dad, you're 72 years old. Why are you in such a hurry, bro? Slow down. Even today, right? So I'm driving this car and I'm leaving Chick-fil-A. I've worked the long shift. It's late at night and I pull up to this stoplight about to get on the interstate for a couple of miles to get back to my house and I'm at this stoplight to get on the interstate and I hear this car behind me revving up their engine. Now, if you don't know what that means in South Carolina to a young teenage boy, that means it's about to get home, right?
We're about to race these things, right? So he keeps revving his engine up. I can't really see who it is because the windows are dark and he's kind of behind me. Well, we get on the interstate and this Mustang comes right beside me and starts revving up. He's riding with me and he starts revving up his engine again. And so I'm trying to ignore him. I'm resisting temptation, Chris. I'm trying to ignore him. I'm trying to keep my eyes forward. And so then he just takes off, right?
He gets out in front of me and then he will slow down, let me catch up. He does this about two or three times. I'm doing a fantastic job of resisting temptation. I'm proud of myself. I was patting myself on the back, Art. I'm saying, okay, you've resisted temptation. Finally, I just, I was weak, Chris. I was weak. And I just said to myself, if this dude takes off again, I am going to smoke him. And so he does it.
He takes off again. I'm driving in fourth gear. I slam the car down in third gear and stomp on the gas. I mean, it's so hard that the tires bark. I mean, this car had way too much power. I'll be honest with you. And I just took off. I came around him like he was tied to a... And he tried to keep up with me and I just kept getting further and further ahead until he pulled in behind me and turned on his blue lights. I had just raced.
An undercover cop. So now I'm 16 years old and my heart sinks to my stomach. And I don't even know if I'm worried about the cop. My first thought is my dad is going to kill me. I'm 16 years old. I'm about to get spanking like a six-year-old. I'm about to get lit up. That's what I'm thinking. So I pulled over. Thankfully, I had enough wisdom to pull over, even though I probably didn't even recognize him.
I could have just... He never caught me. I would have just pulled over. If you're a young man, pull over for the police, okay? So I pull over. He pulls in behind me. He comes up to the window and he's all, you know, kind of throw his weight around like, what are you doing out here racing? You know, you're a teenage boy out here racing and da-da-da-da. I mean, he just reads... You couldn't afford a $400 ticket, could you?
And you couldn't afford... I could take you to jail and da-da-da-da. I mean, he just is reading me the riot act for about two minutes. I don't even know what to say. I'm dumbfounded. I'm sure that I was a deer in headlights. I had no idea what to say. And finally, after he just hammers me for about two minutes, he shifts and he said, well, I probably did egg you on a little bit. And in my mind I'm thinking, you think, buddy? I mean, three or four times I've resisted temptation, you know?
So he goes, well, I probably did egg you on. I'm not going to give you a ticket, but don't be out here racing. And I'm thinking, dude, you need to be preaching to yourself, bro. Don't be out here racing. He throws my license back in the car and he goes, go tell all your friends you outran the blankety-blank out of the law. Threw my license in the car and turned around and walked off. And I'm just shaking. I mean, I'm literally, I've got my hands on the steering wheel. You know, in one hand, I'm thinking, you're right, bro. I worked you like I was.
But the other hand, I'm still terrified. I literally am shaking. And I'm thinking, how in the world am I going to tell my dad this? And then, Chris, it was very simple. I just didn't. I didn't tell him. I didn't for several years. I'm not suggesting that. I actually had a good relationship with my parents, and I actually had pretty honest conversations with my parents. They were great in that way, but that one, I didn't let out for a little while.
I'm not suggesting that we do that. But I remember thinking in that, I was so distracted. I'm driving this Mustang. Here's this other Mustang, and I'm so distracted by the comparison of these two cars. You think your Mustang's faster than my Mustang? I'm about to show you. And I'm so distracted by that that I put my, I missed the obvious. This is an undercover cop, you idiot. I missed the obvious. I put myself in a tremendous amount of danger driving a car way faster than it should ever have been driven.
I could have literally lost my life in that moment all out of a silly comparison. How many times do we do that spiritually? How many times do we get distracted by somebody else's gift, somebody else's measure, something that I don't like, and we put ourselves in harm's way acting out of a distraction that we shouldn't even be focused on. And Paul is saying to the Corinthians, don't even worry about these guys over here. They're a distraction. The Lord is going to ultimately commend me because if he doesn't, then it's not worth anything anyway, right? So I think that's a trap because we can put ourselves in hard and difficult situations when we compare. Comparison corrupts spiritual authority. Why? Why does it corrupt spiritual authority?
Because when you compare yourself, you err on one of two sides. You either look at others and say, I mean, that person really doesn't have together. I got it together more than that person. So it leads to pride. Or you think, ooh, that person really has it together and I don't at all. Or it leads to insecurity and inferiority. Both of those are carnal and both of those are fleshly. So Paul's saying these guys are comparing themselves to each other and it's really unwise to do that. We should not be comparing ourselves to each other because it's unwise for us to do that. Both of those things, pride or insecurity, are self-centered and carnal.
And both of them keep us from simply obeying God within our measure. It's like y'all ever been to one of those fun houses where they got the mirrors that you can look in, but they're not like, I mean, they are real mirrors in the sense that you see your reflection, but it's not a true reflection of you. Right? They either make you look really big or really small and, you know, so they make us look really big. Again, we can get prideful and think, look at us, or really small, we can just feel inferior. I remember Elisha and I went to that Ripley's Believe It or Not. This was years ago in Myrtle Beach, I think is where we were. We went to that Ripley's Believe It or Not. They have one in Branson as well. And you kind of walk through.
And when you walk in the first part of it, there's this mirror there that makes your face look kind of weird. So you can make like funny faces and it'll, you know, distort your face and, you know, look funny. So we were there by ourselves. And so we take a little bit of time and we're making goofy faces in the mirror just kind of, you know, looking stupid. And then we went on our way and you kind of go through the whole tour. And when you get to the end of the tour, right before you're about to exit, you realize that that mirror that you saw when you came in is actually a two-way mirror. So you can see all the people coming into that thing making stupid faces in the mirror and they don't know you're there. So you're looking at them laughing. And so I'm thinking, oh man, who knew? I mean, who knows what's behind the mirror when we're making all these dumb faces to ourselves?
But here's what it is. It's not a true reflection of who you are. It's showing you when you look at any body other than God to find your measure, to find your worth, your sense of worth, you are looking at something that is not giving you an accurate description of truly who you are. You're looking at a fun house mirror, so to speak, that's showing you something that's not really true. And these apostles that were opponents of Paul, they weren't asking themselves, what is it that God's entrusted to our care? What they were asking themselves is how do we look compared to Paul? It's very self-centered. It's carnal authority. And when I start measuring my calling by somebody else's assignment, here's what I do. I lose sight of the grace that God has given me.
When I'm looking around, and I'm trying to observe other people, again, I'm distracted and I'm not focused on what God has actually put into my life. Look at Paul in Galatians 6. He says, if you think you're too important to help someone, you're only fooling yourself. I love this part. You're not that important. I'm convinced. We're such narcissists in 2026. It's unbelievable. We are literally the center of our world. It's amazing.
He says, pay careful attention to your own work, for then you'll get the satisfaction of a job well done, and you won't need to compare yourself to anyone else. When I was a young youth pastor, there was a guy that was probably 15 years older than a large group of us, and he kind of took us under his wing and just helped us just kind of grow in the Lord. He was just kind of an older brother to all of us. We used to call him the king of one-liners. He had so many one-liners. One that has stuck with me all these years, I mean, literally that was 30 years ago, that stuck with me all these years was this. He said, when you compare and compete, you live in defeat. When you compare and compete, you live in defeat. That is a great one-liner of how it is when we compare ourselves. Let me ask some questions.
Here's some questions for us to consider. I'm going to ask a lot of questions today, by the way, in this message. I'm a question asker. I ask God a lot of questions. I ask myself a lot of questions. I think they're good filters for identifying things. Here's a few. Where am I comparing my assignment to someone else's? Maybe God's called you to do something specific. By the way, when I'm talking about authority and spiritual authority, I'm not just talking about it in relation to the gathered church.
I'm talking about your job. This is very practical. Your job, your family, your relationships. Authority affects every single area of our life. Every area. Am I trying to function in someone else's measure? Am I trying to assert myself in an area that this might not be my area? Am I despising the measure that God gave me because it doesn't look impressive? We want to be seen, don't we? Am I overreaching because I want to be seen as more spiritual, more important, or more needed?
Am I serving just so somebody can see me? Am I doing things in front of the boss because I want to look good? And then behind the scenes, I really don't care at all. Right? See, the standard, when you talk about the standard of authority, the standard of authority is not others and what they're doing. The standard of authority is faithfulness to the measure that God has entrusted to me. Secondly, the structure of authority, God-given measure. Right? Spiritual authority has a God-given measure, we mentioned. He gives a measure of authority to be fruitful instead of being forceful.
When you get outside of your measure, then you start grasping for things, Chris. You start pressing into areas that maybe you don't need to press into, and what happens is we wound people. Spiritual authority is for serving others, not subduing them. If you've got to tell everybody how much spiritual authority you have, and you've got to tell everybody that you're in charge, guess what? You are not in charge. And if we don't have entrance, if God's not giving us entrance or influence, to speak into a situation or to speak to a person, then two things are going to happen. Number one, you're probably not going to be heard in it, and number two, you're probably going to wound people. So if you have this attitude, God has sent me here to straighten this whole thing out. You're on the wrong track. Now, maybe God has sent you to a place, whether your job, whether a congregation, to assist in that place growing.
Maybe He has sent you there for that reason, but there's a way to go about that. There's an attitude in which to go about that that is far more biblical, far more truly spiritual, and far more practically better than just walking in and saying, I came here to straighten this out, and y'all are going to listen to me. Nope. None of us like this when it happens to us, but at times we can really, and you know, for somebody like myself, when I take those personality tests, I'm a choleric, I don't know if you, a D, a D, you know, I don't even know what all you call, what all the other ones are, but a strong personality. And I can remember, now this is so duh, you know, now, my wife has helped me in this. I had zero emotional intelligence. My wife has helped me immensely in this over the years. I still have not arrived, but thank the Lord I'm not where I was. I'd literally, I'm not kidding you, I'd literally, I would see somebody doing something, and I would think, there is a better way to do this. And you know, I bet that they would appreciate me telling them a better way to do this.
I'd legit, I mean, with a heart to help, truly thinking, they probably want my opinion. They are doing it this way only because they don't, if they knew the better way that I have of doing this, I bet they would be excited to hear it. Y'all are laughing because that is so stupid, but I really did believe that. And the Lord helped me over the years to recognize most people don't want to hear your mouth. Jonathan, just shut up. That's how God has to talk to me sometimes. Now, here's the thing about it. I probably do have a gift and a grace to be a problem solver, to see where the plate, where the pieces fit, what needs to, I love efficiency. I'm probably there, I don't know there's anything that thrills me more than efficiency. I love to see efficiency.
Like, it blesses me. Some of y'all are saying that's so dumb. I love efficiency. Okay? So, he probably has graced me on that. But how do you know, every single one of us that has a strength, if it's misapplied, it becomes a weakness. And in that moment, when I'm giving my opinion in a place that I don't have any entrance, it's not heard, and it hurts people. So, you've got to say, do I have entrance and measure into this situation? This is true even on your job. Right?
Some of us have had bosses before. You might, right, know way more than the boss. It's like now, you know, you might, maybe you've been in a career for 25, 30 years, and they hired some kid right out of college and put that kid, put him in a place of authority over you. Now, if that kid is smart, he's not going to come in, and maybe you are that kid, so hear this, you're not going to come in and throw your weight around and start commanding 60-year-old men around about how you know how to do it. That would be stupid. Because you have official authority, but you really don't have authority. And positional authority is the lowest form of authority. So, if you're that kid, you'd be dumb to go in and start commanding around 60-year-old men. But if you're a believer, and you're a 60-year-old man, and they hire a kid to be over you, you understand official authority. So, you listen when that kid tells you something, and you have a heart of humility.
You see how this works? This is everywhere. Everywhere. And if we understand how to discern it, we start getting out of the bounds. We start building our fence on somebody else's property. We start plowing in a field that is not ours. It's huge. Right? I remember a young guy that worked for me on our staff team. It was on our youth team.
And he worked for me, and I had official authority in his life. And I felt like I had spiritual authority in his life. I did have spiritual authority in his life, but in this particular instance, I over... What's the word? Overestimated. Overestimated my entrance into his life. And there was a particular area that I talked to him about probably 30 times. Literally about 30 times, where he had really dropped the ball in this one particular area. And then finally, we had this event, and it came to a head, and it was... You know, he really messed it up.
He really did mess it up. And now, you know, all the teachers are coming to me and talking to me, and I'm... So, instead of me confronting him privately again, I confronted him. I say confronted. I wasn't like angry or anything, but I confronted him in front of the whole youth staff, really, because it affected all of us. That was my reasoning. But I saw... I damaged my relationship with him. I wounded him. I did not act in the heart of a father of caring for him in that moment.
Again, I wasn't irate. Everything I said was true, but I went about it in the wrong spirit and in the wrong way. Now, God helped us. I asked for forgiveness. He repented. We did that multiple times. We hugged it out. It was okay, but I gotta tell you, it altered our relationship. It altered our relationship because it damaged something, and when we overestimate our entrance into someone's life, we violate their... You can do this with your kids.
You can violate the conscience of your kids. We preached this, and when we preached through Romans last year, I don't remember... In Romans 14, I don't remember where we were in that. Go back and listen to those messages. We preach a strong message here about conscience, of not violating people's conscience for this reason. Not the reason of me, violating this young man's conscience, but because you can really wound people, right? And a lot of times, we've seen spiritual authority misused where we do violate people's conscience, and people are wounded. Jeff Ray, I don't know if he said it exactly this way. Jeff and Lene are part of our elders. Jeff owns several businesses, and I remember Jeff saying to me one time, I don't know if he said it this way, but here's how I heard it.
I thought it was excellent. He said, if you're a boss, and you ever fire someone, and it takes them out of left field, right? If you have to fire them, and it takes them out of left field, you've not done a good job as a leader because you've not come alongside them and walked with them in the off-ramp, so to speak, to say to them, hey, you're falling short in this particular area of the job, and here's what we're going to do to improve. And then you walk with them. I'm not saying that it's never, and he wasn't saying, that it's never appropriate for someone to lose their job because at times, someone does need to lose their job. But you can do that in a way that you're walking alongside them in doing it when they're missing the mark. Does that make sense? So this is, so, and if you're an employee, and you hear that, right? If you hear that, well, I'm missing it in this job, or in this particular area of the job, then I'm going to improve in this. And if you don't, and you get fired, just accept and say, you know, you're right.
And you don't have to take that. This is a big one. This is not the best, but it's a big one. You don't have to take that as a failure, that you're a failure yourself. You could have failed at that job or failed at that thing and not be a failure yourself. That's the difference. Between finding your identity and what you're doing. That's a whole other message there, right? In fact, I'm going to say to you, getting fired might be one of the greatest things that ever happens to you, if you handle it properly. If you handle it properly.
See, forceful authority demands a stage of recognition. It's me centered. Fruitful authority tends a field. What do you mean by that, Jonathan? I mean, it cultivates, it produces fruit in the lives of others. If anybody comes to you and says, I have spiritual authority over your life, run from them. Run. Because spiritual authority is not meant to lord over people. It's meant to come along and serve people and care for them and see them come into the fullness who God's called them to be. I'm not saying there's not times that there's confrontation in it, but again, the nuance of the confrontation is huge.
I don't have time to go into all this, but I can remember there was a time at the Wasso campus. There was four couples there that were attending and becoming a part of the life of the house that were living together and they weren't married. But I didn't really know them well. And I'm praying, I'm saying, Lord, give me entrance. Now, I'm going to preach the truth of the gospel when it comes to sexuality and various things when we have, you know, from the pulpit when we're preaching a message. But when I'm talking to people one-on-one, I want entrance into their life. So I'm praying, Lord, give me an opportunity to talk to each one of these couples. And the Lord worked it out. One of the couples came through 301. We had an opportunity to talk to them.
One of them wanted to dedicate a baby they had together where I was able to talk to them. One of them came to me, wanted me to marry him. And I was like, guys, here's what, you know, here's the scripture on this. You're living together. They were kind of the Brady bunch. She had kids. He had kids that were living. In particular, when I said to him, here's what I want you to do. Well, I always ask this question. Are you a disciple of Christ?
If they say yes, okay. You believe the scripture, yes. Am I your pastor? Are we, you know, I might not know in person, but we, the elders, are we your pastor? Yes. Okay. Then out of those two things, I'm going to present you with the scripture. And here's what the scripture says about you guys living together and not being married. You're living in a sinful situation. God can't honor this.
Here's what I'm going to ask you to do. I'm going to marry you, and I'm going to do your ceremony, but you got three months of premarital counseling. Here's what I'm going to ask you to do for the next three months. I'm going to ask you to move in on the couch. I said to the guy, I'm going to ask you to move in on the couch. It wasn't practical for them to totally separate. There's a lot of things there. I'm going to ask you to move into the couch. I'm going to ask you to not have a sexual relationship until you're married. And because their kids were older and teenagers, I'm going to ask you to sit down and talk to your kids and tell them that you've been living this way and what you're going to change and why you're doing it.
If you'll do that, I'm happy to marry you. Now, I said that with a real tender heart towards them. It wasn't an ultimatum. Even though I believed it, that they said we can't do that. I'd have said, I love you, but I can't do your wedding. Right? Again, the nuance of how you present something is huge because really in my heart, it was tenderness. It was not so that I could be right. It wasn't to be punitive to them. It was a genuine desire to see their marriage start out on a strong and right and biblical foundation.
And to their credit, that's what they did. Now, I didn't go to their house every week and knock on the door and be like, hey, what's up with y'all? I mean, how's it, you know, I trusted them in it. I did their ceremony. God blessed them immensely. They're at another work now, very connected in that, last I heard, very connected in that church, serving, laboring together. It's beautiful. I love it. Right? Why?
Because you have entrance. I had entrance in that moment to speak. There's been times that I've missed it, but other times when the Lord's helped me get it right. We serve, spiritual authority serves from placement, not position. This is the core value of Destiny Life. We talk a lot about this. I won't take the time today to go into it other than to say that authority doesn't come to you by title. It really comes by grace, fruit, and faithful service. I don't think there's a lot of understanding. In fact, I'd love to have a conversation with anybody that desires to talk about this.
I don't think we have a lot of understanding when we talk about place and position. I don't think we have a lot of understanding about your role and how that affects who you are in your position. Right? Let me, I won't take the time to tell this story because I think it's a good analogy. Tom Williams, many of you guys know Tom and Gene Williams. Tom was an elder in the house here for many years. He's gone on to be with the Lord. If you didn't get an opportunity to know Tom, I'm sorry because he was such a great guy. Tom would have been one of the vocational pastors that moved to Claremore to be a part of Destiny Life Church way back in the 80s. He was a pastor.
He resigned his church, moved to be a part of Destiny Life, and it was Church at Claremore at that time. When he moved here to be a part of it, he didn't come on staff at the church. He started a paint business. He was in his paint clothes one day, and he was up at Quick Trip or something. He came out of Quick Trip, and saw a kid that had been a part of their youth ministry when he was a vocational pastor. The kid saw him in his paint clothes, and he said to Tom, Tom, I didn't know that you had gotten out of the ministry because that's how we think. We think ministry is being on staff at a church. We don't think that at Destiny Life, but oftentimes out here we think that. Well, the truth of the matter was Tom and his spiritual influence had a broader spiritual influence in that moment than he ever did when he was vocationally pastoring and being a youth pastor. In other words, his role shifted, but his measure did not.
His placement in the body of Christ did not shift, even though his title and his position and his role shifted. I think that's a good analogy of what we're trying to say. Here's what position says. It says, you have to listen to me because of my title. This is the lowest form of leadership. Placement says, God's put me here to serve, strengthen, and build. Placement says, go to that next one if you would. Position grasps. Placement receives. Lord, I just want what you're entrusted to me.
Position demands recognition. Placement just bears fruit. Position wants to be seen. Placement wants Christ to be formed in people. The measure of authority that God's given you is not to just pump you up. It's to allow you to serve his body, to see his kingdom expanded. There's a lot to be said about that. Think about John the Baptist. Abigo, you can come up here. Think about John the Baptist.
Sometimes the music helps me land the plane. Glory to God. You ever thought about John the Baptist? John the Baptist is Jesus' cousin. He's the forerunner of Christ. Basically, in John 3, what happens is John the Baptist's disciples come to him and say, hey, you remember that guy that you baptized a little while ago? You said he was the Savior. Him and his disciples are baptizing a lot. They used to come to us to get baptized, but now more people are going to them than they are us. And John said, don't worry about it because he is the Savior and guess what?
He's got, I got a decrease and he's got an increase. Can you imagine the humility of John the Baptist that he has been the man and now he's not anymore and he's saying yes and amen because my role, I have fulfilled the function that God's given me. I've operated into that measure and now it's shifted and not only am I okay with it, I'm glad it's happening. We don't think like that. We try to grasp. Now let me ask you a question. If you went to a wedding, because it's easy to say amen to something like that. If you went to a wedding and y'all, you're watching that ceremony and it comes down to the part where they're doing their vows and the best man steps up and pushes the groom out of the way and says, hey, bro, I'm going to marry her, not you. Now, first off, this would be the most drama-filled wedding you've ever been to, but we would be flabbergasted, wouldn't we? We would be like, we'd be talking about that wedding forever.
Can you believe what the best man did? The bride, the groom was supposed to marry and now this dude jumped in. But that's exactly the analogy that John uses. And when we try to step into another measure, that's what we're doing. We're saying, get out of the way, God. I don't like the measure you gave me. I want that person's measure. I want to work in that field rather than saying, Lord, what is the field you've entrusted to my care and how can I be faithful in it? Lastly, the stewardship. Do I have them on a slide?
Put those next questions up there. Oh, no, that's the wrong one. I'm sorry. Okay, skip to the stewardship of authority. Let me try to finish with this. I'll try to say this fast. John, what do you mean by stewardship of authority? I'm talking about really trusting God with people. I think there's times Paul's desire was not his own self-promotion. His desire was for the expansion of the gospel and spiritual authority really trust God with people.
In other words, he wasn't trying to possess the Corinthians. He wasn't trying to say, y'all are my people. This is my church. These are my sheep. He wasn't trying to say that. His desire was to see them solidified so that the gospel could continue to move forward. He was trying to serve them unto maturity, if you will, so that the mission of God could really grow. Spiritual authority doesn't say, you belong to me, for example. Spiritual authority says, I'm called to serve what belongs to Christ. So how can I do that?
In true spiritual authority, one must really trust God with people and not, chase them or control them. It's not spiritual authority. That's manipulation and control. If I'm trying to make somebody do something, even if it's the right thing, I'm manipulating them and controlling them. I got to tell you, this is really hard. Parents, this is hard as parents. One thing I look back on, because I'm in this season of life with my own daughters, I look back on my parents. My parents, I had wonderful parents, but my parents did an exceptional job in my young adult years of allowing me to make my own mistakes and allow me to really figure things out on my own with having some broad parameters to help me. I didn't recognize it at the time, how good of a job they did, but parents, we can violate our own kids' conscience. You don't parent a 20-year-old like you do a 2-year-old.
If you do, you stunt their growth. Right? Right now, Elisha and I, we have one daughter who's married, one daughter that's not married, is about to be 20, that still lives at our house. We don't parent them the same way. I mean, if you're a parent, you got older kids, you never stop parenting, right? And yet, the way you parent, looks different. Why? Because you understand your measure and your entrance in that, and you pray and you trust God for people. If you've ever discipled anybody, cared for somebody, and you're discipling them, and they're about to make a horrendous mistake, and you see the brick wall coming, you can present truth to them, you can care for them, you can talk to them, but you cannot control them. If you do, that's manipulation and coercion.
Even if the fruit of their decision is going to be disastrous, and that is so hard to do, especially when you really love people. But that's where we can trust God. All right, now you can put those questions up there. Let me ask you these, and then we'll pray. Can I really trust God with people? Jonathan, what does that look like? I'm glad you asked. Can I speak truth without forcing outcomes? It's okay to speak truth to people, but you can't force what the outcome is going to be. Can I persuade without manipulating?
Even in destiny life, we want people to be a part of stuff, and whether it's an event, or whatever it is, can we inspire people towards that and lead people towards it without manipulating them? That would look like saying, you know, if y'all really love Jesus, if you really believed in the vision of the house, you'd be at this meeting. That's manipulation and control. Now, it might be really valuable for you to be at the meeting. It might be an indication of how much you do believe in the vision and love it. But if we're pressing people, can I appeal without coercing? Can I lead without playing God? Can I release people to obey God even when I don't control the process? These are hard things. You hold these things loosely.
Why? Because you're serving people. You're caring for people and allowing them to go. If you're violating people's conscience to get their obedience, then I've stepped outside of my measure. I'm not leading anymore. I'm lording over someone. We see that a lot. I remember, let me tell this story, and then I'll be done here. I remember I was a young youth pastor, and Tony Miller, some of you guys know Tony Miller. He's gone on to be with the Lord here, but he came to destiny life a few times.
He's a was a brilliant preacher, really just a wonderful man, and I was introduced to him when I was in college, and one of my friends traveled with him, and so I met him, and he was preaching at this really large church on this particular night, and we happened to be there. He said, hey, why don't you guys come with me? You be in the service, and after, we'll go back to the green room, which should have been the first indication. We'll go back to the green room, and you guys can talk to the pastor and just ask him questions and stuff. It'd be a blessing for you as a young person. I said, oh, man, I'm excited about it. This guy's leading thousands of people. This is a blow-and-go in church. This would be great for me to... Now, you've got to remember, Jonathan is massively ambitious at this time, too, and I'm saying, oh, I'd love to do that.
So we get in there, and we're listening to him. We're asking him questions, and he's kind of pouring out to us, and he says some good stuff, but one thing he said that I cringe when I say it today, but even then, as a 22, 23-year-old, I was like, I don't know if that sounds right, and this is what he says. He says, people are tools that God has sent you to accomplish your vision, and even then, I thought, ooh, I don't know about that. Today, I cringe when I say that because people are not tools that he sends to accomplish Jonathan's vision, Glenn's vision, the elder's vision. No, no, no. People are God's people that have come to be served, cared for, ministered to, led, inspired, equipped. That's real spiritual authority. That's true... That's what Paul's saying. Paul's saying, I'm not trying to commend myself.
That's Christ. Let Christ commend. Is there authority? Yes. You can't deny that there's authority. Yes, there's authority, but it's not to lord over people. It's to serve people, to care for them, to minister to them, to equip them, to see the gift of God come alive in their life. I've said this a ton to people in individual conversations. Here would be the expectation. If you're a part of Destiny Life, here is the overarching expectation.
Be who God's created you and called you to be. Because as you do that, you do that, and you do that, and they do that, and I do that, guess what? The body of Christ is built up. The kingdom of God is advanced. Why don't you stand with me? All right, one more question. Okay, one more question. Can y'all take one more? Here's really the question. The question is not simply, do I have authority?
Let me bring this right to us. If you're in this room, you have authority. God has given you a measure of authority. You might not be walking in the fullness of it yet. It might... You know, you got to grow into all those things. You may not even realize, but every single one of us, as a believer, God's given a measure of authority. That's not the question. The question is not, do I have a authority? Here's a better question.
Am I faithful in the measure that God has given me in this moment? That's the question. Am I being faithful with what He's entrusted to my care? This is true about your finances. This is true about your family. This is true about your job. This is true about your children. This is true about everything that's been entrusted to your care by God. The people that He's brought into your realm, and that is a great question for us to continually ask ourselves to allow the Holy Spirit to show us what we cannot see on our own. Jonathan does not know the answer to this.
You might not even know the answer to it in your own life. That's why we need the help of the Holy Spirit to show us what we cannot see. I want to pray that over us. Is that okay? Father, I thank You for authority and the measure that You've given to each man and woman in this room or those watching online. Some are not aware of it. Lord, some may be aware, but not really sure how to walk in it. I pray that You, Holy Spirit, would show us what we can't see. Lord, not for condemnation. You don't bring things to the surface to bring condemnation, but You bring them to deal with them.
So I thank You for it, and I pray for every person as we just turn Your search light on, Holy Spirit. Search our hearts. Show us what we can't see. I pray that we would walk in the fullness of the measure that You've called each one of us to so that Your body would be equipped, that joint would supply joint, that the kingdom of God would advance, I thank You for it. And Lord, if we're out there seeking positions and titles that we would grasp no longer, but that we would care truly about what You have called us to be and to do. Lord, that we would break any of those funhouse mirrors that are distorting the image that You've created us in, whether it's leading to pride or insecurity, that You would destroy them, that You would help us walk in the fullness of who You called us to be and what You called us to be and to do. If you believe that, say, good amen. God bless you. You can be seated. James is going to come and close out the service for us.
Thank you, Jonathan. I'm so glad that we're moving through these books of the Bible because God ordains that certain issues are spoken to, to bring adjustments and corrections in our life. And this has been a good message to bring correction and adjustment. I think back over my 40 years, almost 40 years that I've been here, and I think about, some of the things that he's preached this morning, where that God came and adjusted and corrected and brought about a change. And sometimes it's hard, but it's good. Hard is not bad. It's just simply hard. And it is good for us. Because God, in His discipline and His correction, wants us to grow up into the fullness of the maturity of Jesus Christ. So, thank you, Jonathan.
For faithfully delivering a good word to us this morning. That's great. We want to continue with our worship this morning with our giving. If you've been a part of Destiny Life for some time, you know we have several ways of giving. Smart giving. Regular giving. And if you're using an envelope or check or cash, there's the envelope in the seat back in front of you. You can fill that out and just drop it in the offering container as you leave. If you do the text to give, then do that. But it's not that we desire a gift, but it's rather that fruit may abound to your account.
I say that almost every time. But it's the truth. It's not that we desire a gift. It's not that we desire anything, but we desire, the only thing we desire is that fruit may abound to your account. That the blessings of the Lord will come upon you and overtake you. So as you give, as you prepare to give, do so in worship and thanksgiving to God because He has blessed you. Let me pray for you. Lord, I thank you this morning for the opportunity that we have to honor you with our giving. Thank you that you have blessed us. And we declare, Lord, that it is you who has given us power to get well or to gain because you've given us our life, you've given us our strength, you've provided the jobs, you've provided the ways of work and labor that we might have to give even to those who have need.
I pray for those who need an increase, that you would give them favor with their job. Give them favor if they have customers. Give them favor. Cause there to be an increase there. If they need to change jobs, that you lead them in the way that they ought to go and you bring them into contact with those that they need to have contact with. They need a job. Pray that you would bless them as they are diligent, that you will speak to them about who to talk to, where to go, how to do, what needs to be done. I thank you that you cause us to increase and we bless you this morning. We give you glory and we give you honor. We give you worship with our giving and I speak your blessings on your people.
In Jesus' name, Amen. Amen. As you prepare your giving, check out these announcements. at dlc.tv forward slash third Sunday. The Christ College Hermeneutics class begins July 27th. This is the art and science of biblical interpretation. In this course, the student is introduced to sound hermeneutical principles and rules and given the opportunities to gain skill in applying them. If you've always wanted to begin Christ College, this is a great time to start as this is the first class of the program. Flyer register at ChristCollege.us Students and parents, our Youth Camp Summer Summit is two weeks away and it's not too late to register. Scan the QR code on your seed flyer to register your student today. Or if you'd like more information, you can visit our website at dlcy.tv.
Well, that's all you know. If you have a prayer need, please let us know. We'd love to be in prayer with you. Now let's hear it from Jerry Vaughn for our monthly Missions Focus. Hello everyone, it's Mission Sunday and thank you for letting me take a few minutes of your time. As all of you know, Venezuela was hit by two major twin earthquakes and then several smaller earthquakes following that. As a result, the coastal area, including Caracas, was damaged so horribly with thousands and thousands of people being killed in the rubbish. We have workers there that are helping in that area. The main area that we're focused in is our city of Maracay, which is 40 miles south of Caracas. We did not have the devastation that they had in Caracas and Maracay.
Nevertheless, many apartment buildings were so damaged that they're now uninhabitable. And so as a result of that, there were so many displaced families that had to go to the streets, and then the government helped them to get in hotel rooms and other places like that. We don't know right now what that's going to look like. We're having to walk through this and see how things can settle as time goes along. So during this time, we've taken upon us the responsibility to do our part. Our church, our leaders in Maracay are cooking food, packaging them and taking them to around 60 or 70 people a day. One beautiful thing, is to see the pastors that have come together and each of them are helping as a team to provide food at different times and different meals for these people. I don't know how long this is going to continue. I told our leaders there, as long as the Lord provides, we'll keep doing whatever we can do. I want to thank all of you who have already given so much to enable us to purchase a lot of food and to prepare that and feed a lot of people already.
Following my little talk here, is a video from Roberto and Violeta, our main leaders there in Maracay. I want to thank you for your heart, your care for people. Thank you for praying for Venezuela at this time and doing all that you feel led to do. Bless you. Thank you so much. And I will add as well, thank you for those who have taken part in helping those in Venezuela as well. I want to say also that if this is your first time or you're relatively new and we do not have your information, what we want to do, the only reason why we desire for you to fill out this welcome card, is so that we can keep you in touch with what is happening here at DLC. So, if you don't mind, just fill one of these cards out and deposit it in the offering container as you leave. Would you stand with us as we prepare to leave? Also, before you leave, as you're standing, I know something else to do.
If you haven't filled out the black book at the end of the row and send it down, please do so so that we can have a record of your attendance this morning. If we need to change any information about you, that we can also change that. But let me pray and bless you. Lord, I thank you for your people. I thank you that you have spoken to us through your word. You've adjusted us. You have corrected us. As a good father, you brought discipline and correction into our lives. And we thank you for that. And I pray as we go today, that this word transforms us and changes us by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Thank you for your blessings on us as we go our ways in Jesus' name. Amen. Go in the grace of the Lord and may he make his face shine upon you. God bless you.
